The present invention relates to a system using electronic devices connected to a network and particularly relates to an art of notifying a location of a user who uses a plurality of electronic devices installed at various locations.
Normally, social activities performed as a member of society accompany movement to various locations. Therefore, it is very important to notify one's destination and location to family, colleagues, friends, etc. Especially for a member of a corporate organization, activities that involve going to a headquarters, branch office, sales office, plant, and other various departments on business are part of the daily routine, and one's destination and location must be communicated to superiors, colleagues, subordinates, etc. As such communication purposes, a method of placing a memo indicating one's destination on one's desk, a method of writing one's destination on a bulletin board, etc., have been practiced commonly of old.
Meanwhile, today, when communication means using networks have spread, methods of transmitting messages concerning one's location and destination by sending and receiving electronic information have been proposed. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 11-305695A discloses a system, with which a destination of a person who is preliminary set is displayed on an electronic bulletin board based on information input via an external communication line. Also, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2002-49728 discloses a system that makes a personal computer show a bulletin board that indicates destinations of respective employees by utilizing a Web server. According to this system, destinations and locations of other members can be displayed and checked instantly on a personal computer or other terminal device.
In the above conventional systems, it is premised that information on destinations and locations of specific members is input and set in advance by the members themselves or by other members instructed by the members. For example, in a case of members scheduled to go to a headquarters on business, a task of inputting information, indicating the destination or location, such as “at the headquarters in the afternoon,” as data in the system in advance must be performed. The system merely has a function of arranging information based on such self-declaration and presenting the information on an electronic bulletin board, etc. Put in another way, unless each individual member voluntarily makes a self-declaration, correct destinations cannot be presented.
Thus with such a system premised on voluntary self-declaration, an adverse effect of placing a task load of “declaring a destination” on each individual member arises in terms of operation, and because of this, the problem that destinations cannot be presented in detail occurs. For example, although a task load of making a self-declaration of the level of “at the headquarters in the afternoon” is not significant, if a mode of operation is implemented, in which detailed travel schedules, such as “in the 7th floor meeting room of the headquarters building from 1:00 to 1:40, in the meeting room of the Sales Headquarters 7th Section on the 3rd floor of the headquarters building from 1:50 to 3:00, in the No. 4 clean room on the 5th floor of building No. 4 of the Saitama Plant from 4:00 to 5:00,” must be self-declared, the task load of each individual member inevitably becomes extremely large.
Meanwhile from the standpoint of another member who uses the destination information of a specific member, general information of the level of “at the headquarters in the afternoon” is not of much use. In a case where a specific member is to be contacted, it is difficult to make immediate contact with just information of the level of “at the headquarters in the afternoon,” and it is more preferable to obtain destination information that is as detailed as possible.